viroid S
Life Science

The smallest known pathogen, composed solely of a single strand of RNA, which invades plant cells and can cause disease. Containing no protein structures, viroids infect mainly agricultural plants, with this viroid only infecting Papaveraceae, or the poppy family. It spread throughout Beyond Coast in 2035, wiping out all poppy cultivation. It has never been reported on Earth, which has led some to speculate it is a mutated version of an Earth viroid. Called viroid S because its structure resembles the letter S of the Roman alphabet.